Page 14 - Work Force July-August 2019

Working People’s History: Women win the right to vote
Cottrell is PEOPLE recruiter of the month for May
SYRACUSE — Ali Cottrell, 5th vice president of our SUNY Upstate Local in the Central Region, is
the PEOPLE
Recruiter of
the Month
for May. He
recruited 12
new PEOPLE members.
“When I talk about the PEOPLE Program, I let my co-workers
know how important it is to have the right legislators in office to support working families,” said Cottrell, a health care technician at SUNY Upstate Medical University’s
Downtown Campus who also serves on the Central Region PEOPLE Committee. “They sign
up because they understand how important it is to protect our pensions, help keep our healthcare costs down, and maintain our job security. They recognize that the PEOPLE Program helps them do that.”
CSEA’s PEOPLE program protects and improves our
jobs, benefits and pensions
in Washington, Albany and in your community. Your support and participation in PEOPLE strengthens CSEA’s clout in the workplace, in the legislature, in your community and in the labor movement.
— Mark M. Kotzin
Cottrell
On Aug. 18, 1920, all American women won the right to vote when the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
While the women’s suffrage movement dawned during the first-ever Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, support for women’s voting rights increased during the late 19th century. Suffragists understood that the power of the vote is the best way to effect positive change in our country.
Labor unions played a key role as the suffrage
movement
ramped
up around the turn of the 20th century.
As women
increasingly entered the workforce, many working women joined labor unions.
The already- decades
long
struggle for
women to
have the
right to
vote was
largely reignited through the labor movement and our ongoing right for justice in the workplace. Some labor groups, particularly the Women’s Trade Union League, teamed up with suffragist groups to win justice.
Suffragist leaders not only recruited working women into their ongoing fight to win the right to vote, but adopted some of the same activism tactics commonly used by unions, including demonstrations and political action. Many suffragists
faced violence, torture and imprisonment for their cause.
During several 1917 demonstrations, suffragists were arrested for ‘obstructing traffic.’ After refusing to pay a fine, they were taken to a Virginia prison that was infested with rats.
Two of the jailed suffragists, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, were among those who led a hunger strike at the prison to show they were willing to give their lives for the right to vote.
Prison officials eventually force-fed the suffragists, shoving a
hard tube down their throats to get food into their bodies. The force feedings often led the women to vomit and even nearly suffocate.
Other suffragists
were brutally beaten by guards at the same prison, most notably during the Nov. 14,
1917, ‘Night of Terror,’ when nearly 40 guards were ordered to torture the suffragists.
When the public learned about the conditions in the prison, they were angered and the suffragists were eventually released. Soon afterward, President Woodrow Wilson announced his support of the women’s suffrage amendment.
Nearly a century later, it is crucial we remember this fight and use our right to vote.
CALL FOR ENTRIES
DNadra Floyd Award for Organizing
o you know a CSEA member, into our union?
committee, local or unit Please read the nomination
that has worked to grow CSEA’s membership by helping CSEA organize a new group of workers
TMembership Achievement Award
he CSEA Membership shop fee payers into members in Achievement Award honors a the private sector.
CSEA member, group of members, committee, unit or local that has done the hard work of signing up newly-hired employees as CSEA members or converting agency
Please read the nomination guidelines found on the official nomination form on CSEA’s website at cseany.org.
Nominations for both awards must be submitted by Aug. 30, 2019, and mailed to:
CSEA Membership Committee
Nadra Floyd Award for Organizing or c/o CSEA Organizing Department
143 Washington Avenue
Albany, N.Y. 12210
CSEA Membership Committee
Membership Achievement Award
c/o CSEA Organizing Department 143 Washington Avenue
Albany, N.Y. 12210
Learn more and download nomination forms at:
cseany.org/award-nominations
guidelines found on the official nomination form on CSEA’s website at cseany.org.
14 The Work Force
July-August 2019
Women’s suffrage leader Alice Paul, shown here in August 1920, toasts (with grape juice) the passage of the 19th Amendment that grants all American women the right to vote.